Growing your own food can save some green

More people are looking to grow their own food or form partnerships with farms to get fresh, affordable food.

Rob Haneisen

It's almost a perfect storm of hardships that could shrink grocery lists and bust family budgets.

Rice and grain is being rationed in some stores. Flour prices have nearly quadrupled in the past year. Staples like milk, eggs and meat are markedly more expensive because of ballooning fuel costs. And as more corn and fields are dedicated to making ethanol for biofuel, less corn and grain are available for food products -- driving up those costs as well.

There's no technological or ingenious solution to the problem of high food prices and shortages, farmers and gardening experts will say.

The simple answer is to take a step back in time to an age when the "Greatest Generation" practiced self-sufficiency not out of "green" trendiness but as a necessity.

More people are looking to grow their own food or form partnerships with local farms to get fresh, affordable food.

"It's not a new movement. It's the way that our grandparents did things and it's the way we should do things as well," said Bonnie Punch, a staff member at the Natick, Mass., Community Organic Farm, which has seen a big increase in pre-orders for vegetable seedlings this spring from aspiring home gardeners.

"I'm hoping that more people will attempt to produce more of their own food. If they are ever going to do it, it will be now," said Laura Tangerini, owner of Tangerini Spring Street Farm in Millis, Mass.

Her family farm already sold out 120 shares of its Community Supported Agriculture program, where people get produce each week in the harvesting season for a set price and promise to provide labor. It's the first year the family has added the program.

"Food is not going to get any cheaper. It's only going to get more expensive," Tangerini said.

Beginning at home

Laura Richards has three young boys and a husband to feed from her garden. This year, that means trying to squeeze the most food out of her plot as possible.

The 37-year-old Framingham, Mass., mother said she won't plant some vegetables just to experiment.

"I'm going to stick to what we use the most for vegetables," she said. "I'm anticipating food prices will be higher."

Janet Engelson, 56, of Framingham, is taking a similar approach.

"I have always had a garden but am definitely increasing what I grow just to supplement our food budget," she said. "I will have more squash because that stores very well. I'll definitely preserve more -- that's why I brought a (food) dehydrator."

For people who think they don't have the space for a garden, some growers say you should consider sacrificing a sunny patch of lawn.

"I think one of the ways we have to shift our thinking is that lawns are beautiful to the eye for the most part and to cut out a section of that in full sun and put in a garden will look messy," said Kathy Huckins, manager of Stearns Farm in Framingham, a Community Supported Agriculture farm. "There's a huge amount one can do in one's garden."

Sometimes it begins with growing some simple greens that can be harvested most of the summer and fall such as kale, swiss chard and collard greens, Huckins said.

"If people are looking for economy, it's a crop they can move toward," she said.

Those basic greens also tend to be avoided by shoppers in supermarkets, Huckins said.

"One of the reasons is that they look so crappy in supermarkets," she said. "They're picked in California and shipped across the country so they don't look good."

Beginning at home for many gardeners was not solely a matter of economics. It's a convergence of self-sufficiency and a taste for fresh-picked flavor.

"I found that by growing my own I don't have to go to the store that often, plus I don't have to spend that much in gas," said Caraline Levy, of Framingham.

Though she is a shareholder at Stearns Farm, Levy still grows more vegetables at home. Already she has tomato, basil, squash and cucumber seedlings under lights on top of her fridge and rhubarb, peas and other veggies growing in her yard.

"You get used to just eating what's fresh for the harvest," she said. "Mostly I do it because I love fresh food."

More than money

At Grateful Farm in Franklin, Mass., farmer Tim Garboski is getting ready for his 25th year of farming organically on his family's land. He sells his crop to the public daily during harvesting season but also has a prepay program called Greenbucks.

In the program, people get a 20 percent discount on produce if they prepay before May 15.

"People get a good return on their investment," Garboski said. "We're comparable (price-wise) with Stop & Shop and cheaper than Whole Foods, but it's right out of the fields. People are looking for quality."

One of those people is Dawn Dreisbach, 41, of Framingham, who decided to buy $300 in Greenbucks (much more than she normally would) at Grateful Farm because she anticipates food prices will get even more expensive at stores later this summer.

"I've been doing it for four years and for me it's a combination of cost-saving and eating produce grown locally," she said. "I will choose local over organic but he happens to do both."

Garboski said he's seen a shift in eating habits.

"It's a big thing now with the green movement and locally grown movement and the organic movement it has definitely had an increase in this," he said.

In some ways, it's about much more than money.

"People looking at their own health and well-being are noticing that when they eat whole foods they feel better. It's less expensive and is just a win," said Huckins.

But that doesn't mean it's cheap.

Garboski jokes that "you can sell flowers and people will spend a ton of money but when it comes to food they'll dicker with you."

At Stearns farm, shareholders buy a season share for $575 plus commit to 12 hours of work in the fields. In return, they get bags of vegetables for 20 weeks.

The demand for shares is huge. Stearns opened shares for purchase in November and was sold out in December. Already the farm has nearly 100 people on a waiting list.

"That's troubling to me ... . This was the first time they sold out that early," Huckins said.

And while Huckins says she knows Stearns is popular because it includes a children's garden, the ability to work for your share (cutting costs) and flowers she knows part of what is pushing people to a CSA is more than flavor and freshness.

For some families, a worsening economy has more moving toward growing their own or seeking out a local farm.

"In general, I feel that it will bring people closer to the Earth," Huckins said. "It's not pleasant to have to curtail and scrimp ... but it's making us conscious of what we do and don't do and the impact that it has and that consciousness really comes through in food because everybody eats.

"What will pull people more toward thinking this way is economics," she said.

It's not easy

Miranda Edel is a professor of graphic design at the University of Minnesota at Rochester and she's worried that despite their best efforts, some families won't find what they are looking for in their gardens.

"I think very few people will be able to do it," said the creator of the Web site ReviveVictoryGarden.org. "You not only need to know how to grow food but have to be able to store it. Things like canning and dehydrating, etc., and then even learning how to save seeds.

"It's a steep learning curve. In our society, we're pretty complacent, so my biggest concern is people would try once and fail," she said.

Her Web site espouses the lessons and sacrifices made by families during World War II when government food rationing to help feed troops meant families -- even those in cities -- were encouraged to grow much of their own produce. These Victory Gardens were sometimes neighborhood efforts or individual backyard enterprises.

Edel said she's seeing signs that people are trying to take command.

"In Minnesota, a lot of people are starting to dig up parts of their yard and plant gardens. Anything from spinach and kale to tomatoes and melons," she said.

And she practices what she preaches.

"I have part of my backyard dug up for a garden and actually did edible landscaping in our front yard by having herbs and tomatoes mixed in with perennials," she said.

But she's not the only person saying this self-sufficient shift won't be easy or well received.

"People need to take the time and slow down a bit and figure out what's important to them," said Laura Tangerini in Millis.

Some think the movement is overdue.

"I think everything is sort of coming back to bite us," said gardener Laura Richards of Framingham. "We're such a consumeristic society and we have to come and pay the piper at some point and in a way that's not a bad thing. We're going to have to change our practices."

But there is help available. Most farmers and local garden centers are more than willing to share their knowledge for growing green thumbs.

Some, including the Natick Community Organic Farm, have classes and programs on getting started.

"We're totally willing to make sure people can learn," said Punch.

But time is running out.

"It takes little bit of forethought to put together the prices of the produce and growing now," said Dreisbach. "I think people will be talking about it in July when it might be a little too late."

Still there are optimists even in this time of recession, $4 a gallon gasoline and rice rationing. Gardening and feeding themselves could be the one thing some people feel they have some control over.

"People have to shift their lifestyle a little bit to include this change," said Huckins. "But I think people are starting to think that way."

On the Web:

www.natickfarm.org

www.revivevictorygarden.org

www.gratefulfarm.com

www.stearnsfarmcsa.org

www.tangerinisfarm.com

MetroWest Daily News writer Rob Haneisen can be reached at rhaneis@cnc.com or 508-626-3882